The A.V. Club's Scores

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For 4,544 reviews, this publication has graded:
  • 64% higher than the average critic
  • 2% same as the average critic
  • 34% lower than the average critic
On average, this publication grades 1.5 points higher than other critics. (0-100 point scale)
Average Music review score: 74
Highest review score: 100 The Life Of Pablo
Lowest review score: 0 Graffiti
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,663 out of 4544
  2. Mixed: 771 out of 4544
  3. Negative: 110 out of 4544
4544 music reviews
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    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fork In The Road
    So it goes with Fork In The Road, a 10-song set that Young threw together to promote his interest in alternative automobile technology. The concept drives the record to an absurd degree.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Touchdown
    Oddly, the once-acerbic group is now best at being sweetly lovestruck. Now they need another facet that works as well.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Across the Meridian
    It makes for a generally more approachable version of Pram’s eclectic electronic cabaret--one that would make a fine soundtrack to a fever-dream matinee of B-movie sci-fi and gumshoe thrillers. Although, that also means that, more so than Pram’s previous work, it often slips innocuously into the background.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Many Colored Kite
    The problem with Olson's dual interests in simplicity and freeform song structures is that the songs on Many Colored Kite come out shapeless, and practically devoid of hooks of any kind.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Stuff Like That There
    The new tracks (“Awhileaway,” “Rickety”) are pretty if slight, and reveal little of the dynamic range that made Fade such a latter-period highlight. Better are the new-old YLT tunes, even if the selections are occasionally baffling.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Cross Of My Calling
    There are unexpected gems hidden here.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Millport
    Millport might in large part be an homage or a genre project, but at least it’s a sharp and sophisticated one.
    • 83 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Laurel Hell
    For someone who has historically bared it all in her work, it’s frustrating to hear Mitski craft songs with such surface-level musicality. Still, on a lyrical level, she conjures wonderful tales of sorrow and desire, with a pointed sense of brevity and a newfound ability to just let things go.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Hairdresser Blues
    Though Blues is a quick listen, clocking in at a scant 26 minutes, it twists and turns (and builds up and breaks down) so much that it feels much longer and somehow more complete than past efforts.
    • 84 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Western Stars
    It’s a delight to hear the man summon the musical spirits of his past, but it’s all a bit overly tasteful and mannered to have the force as his usual work.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Rock & Roll Submarine
    The end result is just as prefabricated as Saturation, though Rock&Roll Submarine will likely speak to fans of the band's looser, rawer Touch & Go period.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Blouse
    Blouse is a record made for wandering inside the mind, where memory and dreams meet to form a less concrete kind of reality.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Momentary Masters
    Healthy living and hearty curiosity have inspired some lively rock songs, but being Albert Hammond Jr. still sounds pretty stressful.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Dear
    There are stray blasts of righteous melody, like the anthemic crescendos that erupt from the placid surface of “Beyond.” But most of Dear’s sonic earthquakes seem designed to rattle the bones, not catch the ears.
    • 86 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Double Negative
    The result is fearless and impressive, but often lacking in the kind of inviting musicality that encourages repeat listening. It’s a headphones record that holds its audience at a distance: admirably fascinating, but rarely addictive.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Haunted Man
    Her moody charisma and piercing vocals ensure the album is still an enjoyable listen. All the same, it's disappointing that The Haunted Man's beauty is too often only skin deep.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Excellent Italian Greyhound
    Greyhound has a loose, almost improvisational minimalism that straddles the line between engrossing and off-putting.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Four
    The record is yet another perfect encapsulation of modern pop music. Yet, in the process, the band has shed the scrappiness and spunk that made its early music so endearing.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    At Mount Zoomer
    While At Mount Zoomer is occasionally faceless, at least it's a good faceless. There isn't a bad song here, just few great ones.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Everyday Life
    Here’s what it is, though: quietly ambitious, occasionally ham-handed, decidedly political, dopily mystical, surprisingly pointed, and mostly pretty good. And, maybe most importantly, it is unexpected, in good and bad ways.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Five Ghosts
    While it's all tricky, well-crafted music about heartbreak, nothing here breaks hearts the way the best Stars tracks over the years have done. Instead, Stars settle for big hooks and big emotions that inspire more admiration than empathy.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Laugh Now...Laugh Later
    Longtime fans may still find plenty to enjoy; Laugh Now, Laugh Later has all the elements that have worked for the band in the past, and it's a solid addition to the discography. But Face To Face probably won't need to make more room in its set for other songs from this album.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Aureate Gloom
    Loud, fickle, and impolite, Aureate Gloom is yet another entry into the evolution of one man’s soul made manifest through music.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Welcome the Worms
    For the most part, Bleached’s style of rock and roll is best suited to short, vicious tracks that get in, chug a beer, high-five the host, then get out. Welcome The Worms loses some its punch strictly because of its runtime. It’s not long for an album, but it’s long for this kind of album.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Luciano Berio: Laborintus II
    Those who give Laborintus II a few listens will uncover a few hidden payoffs buried deep within its heap of musical ideas. Those who don't go to the trouble will still appreciate Patton's boundless, difficult, creativity.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Expektoration (Live)
    Nothing on Expektoration trumps the studio versions, but the disc serves as a potent reminder of the depth and richness of DOOM's catalog, while interludes, plus an intermission involving the difficulties of learning Klingon, illustrate DOOM's warped sense of humor.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Waterloo To Anywhere
    There are flashes of inspiration and personal expression all over Waterloo To Anywhere, but too much of the record feels unfinished—and worse, one-note.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    III/IV
    While Adams comes off like a prodigiously talented melodicist coasting on his ability to sneeze out hooks whenever he steps into the studio, there are enough pleasures on III/IV to satisfy fans desperate for new product.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Eskimo Snow
    With lyrics clever and humorously crude, frontman Yoni Wolf has shown he can make good music from many states of mind, but Eskimo Snow needs sharper focus.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Enemy Chorus
    Sure, the horns and strings are nice, but they don't really add anything to the already too-busy song structures.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Chasing Yesterday
    Chasing Yesterday is airless and compressed, more like an idea of a great rock album than an actual one.
    • 59 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    No Mercy
    On No Mercy, he starts off strong, but gets lost along the way. He argues that listeners should show him sympathy since the good outweighs the bad in his life, and that's true of No Mercy as well… but not by much.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    People Problems
    When People Problems tries to be both fun and affecting, it's far sillier than when the group actually meant to be silly.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Just Who I Am: Poets & Pirates
    In 'Dancin' For The Groceries,' a young mother misses her kids, who are at home brushing their teeth before bed while she tries to buck up and strip for a living yet again. Such sentiment is more the rule than the exception on an album that proves surprisingly haunting.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Another Eternity
    Another Eternity seems more focused on entertaining large masses of people than creating meaningful art. That’s all fine and good, but that sort of cash and popularity grab might prove that all that past skepticism was well-placed.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Lynn Teeter Flower
    Taylor sounds too much like thousands of other winsome distaff troubadours.
    • 60 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Certified Lover Boy
    The resulting record is largely another missed opportunity for experimentation from the man many consider the current best rapper in the game. Yes, the theatrics, and introspection, and even a few moments of musical deftness, are there. But overall, it’s nothing to depart from 2018’s Scorpion or 2016’s Views. There’s nothing groundbreaking here.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Bang, Zoom, Crazy... Hello
    If you’re a fan of guitar rock, loving Cheap Trick is very important, and though today the band occasionally sounds a little too calculated and studio-glamorous, as opposed to high-voltage and live--and though there’s currently no Bun E., an important note--its staunch resolve about living the rock-and-roll life (album, tour, album, tour, repeat) and parlaying a mega sound into a decades-spanning career should provide reason enough to bow down.
    • 54 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Timbaland Presents Shock Value
    It's nice that Timbaland is intent on challenging himself and his fans, but his daring misfire is the rare major-label hip-hop album that's arguably too adventurous for its own good.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Attack Decay Sustain Release
    Some of the songs on Attack Decay Sustain Release feature vocals in various call-and-response styles, but more are tracks like 'Tits & Acid,' which employs hard, tight sirens and bangs in service of ideas that register without a need for explication.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Because the Internet
    Because The Internet finally shows that Donald Glover is serious about his music, and he’s willing to take some chances to make sure that Childish Gambino can grow as an artist.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Sonic Highways
    Grohl’s quest is representative of an enthusiasm—rounded out by some overwrought lyrics--nearly swallowing itself alive, sure, but with Foo Fighters, hating the game seems more right than hating the player.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Thao & Mirah
    Though they thrive on moments where sadness meets levity, and songcraft meets eccentricity, Thao & Mirah doesn't always find them working in sync.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fireplace: TheNotTheOtherSide
    To Hodgy’s credit, several of the tracks on Fireplace do manage to break free of vague personal change into songs that are resonant for their tension.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Rebel Heart
    Rebel Heart has its fair share of those head-scratchers.... [But] Rebel Heart is a step back in the right direction.
    • 79 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    What We All Come To Need
    The guitars are huge. The drumming is fine. But the disc falls a few inches shy of the group’s tantalizingly elusive potential.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Autodrama
    While the now-self-assumed production remains complex and meticulously nuanced, it also doesn’t help that the melodies just don’t stick to the ears as much. Autodrama is by no means a failure, and warm, lush tones still captivate in parts; given Puro Instinct’s proven talents, hopefully those aren’t just the embers of a flash in the pan.
    • 58 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Smile
    So yes, Katy Perry has grown up, but in doing so, she’s abandoning some of the best things about “Katy Perry.”
    • 81 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert [40th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set]
    The extra five Stones cuts earn their position as bonuses because they aren’t as good as the ones on the original LP. The DVD outtakes are just that, fleeting celebrity cameos or not....As for the opening acts, B.B. King’s five fine songs and Ike & Tina’s showbizzier seven represent neither act at their best--and besides, who buys a Rolling Stones box to hear them?
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Dethalbum III
    The band's latest volume, Dethalbum III, features some of Small's best melodies and instrumentation to date.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Seen It All: The Autobiography
    His voice remains a powerful, if inexpressive, instrument--like a gong, or something--but it feels out of place in the fraught electric guitars of “1-4 Block,” or the Mike Will Made It psychedelia of “4 Zones.”
    • 55 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Havoc and Bright Lights
    Like Morissette, Havoc And Bright Lights remains fearless and vibrant despite its shortcomings.
    • 78 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Breakup Song
    Deerhoof revels in eternally turning perpendicular on itself, an optical illusion for the ears that the foursome has perfected with age.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Monuments to an Elegy
    While Monuments To An Elegy is certainly a solid release, in the end, it’s most enjoyable when approached with managed expectations.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Infinite Granite
    Infinite Granite is easy on the ears, a lush and transporting listen, but it also runs together in a way previous albums from this band—with their hills of jagged intensity and valleys of, yes, heavenly beauty—really didn’t. Here, we get only the beauty: a long, indistinguishable blur of pleasure.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Black Panties
    Regardless of the reason, it’s safe to say that Kelly is fighting all sorts of social norms on Black Panties, from sex talk to issues of race and economics. The way he’s going about the issues might be a little bit clunky, to say the least, but it’s admirable that he’s even tackling them.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Heartbeat Radio
    Heartbreak Radio sounds too breezy to make a lasting impression, but Lerche has done worse--a lot worse.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Czarface Meets Metal Face
    The late-album highlight “Captain Brunch” is a little weirder and more characterful, a hint at what a bolder, tighter collaboration between all these immensely talented artists could sound like. The rest is fine, but for fans only.
    • 65 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Different Gear, Still Speeding
    Noel ain't the only Gallagher that can competently lead a fookin' lad-rock band, mate.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Thank You for Today
    “Summer Years” is the band’s earnest indie-rock sound distilled to its purest essence, and “When We Drive” is an elegiac look at long-term relationships through the metaphor of a road trip--but there’s no “Doors Unlocked And Open” or “Ghosts Of Beverly Drive” to shake things up. It’s another solid Death Cab For Cutie album, but it lacks vitality.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    proVISIONS
    An assortment of contributors both adds to the tension (Neko Case sings on the echoing 'Without A Word') and detracts from it (M. Ward only makes the trucker tune 'Can Do' even more of a non-fit on the record), but proVISIONS is an older Gelb at his gloomiest.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Dig Out Your Soul
    Dig Out Your Soul continues Oasis' relatively impressive late-period resurgence.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Valley
    The past is just that, and The Valley-Eisley's perversely triumphant debut for indie Equal Vision-represents a clean slate. It also serves as a sounding board for chief songwriters/frontwomen Sherri and Stacy DuPree, who swap tales of heartbreaking letdowns with rollicking anger and solemn reflection, respectively.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Lout [EP]
    Lout is a difficult EP to place. It’ll either entice long-standing fans with its heavier sound, fitting well with the band’s aesthetic, or alienate those who prefer the band’s early work. But this reinvention of The Horrors somehow works.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Abnormally Attracted To Sin
    The big problem: Abnormally Attracted To Sin is 17 tracks long, and a lot of it could have been left on the cutting-room floor....The remaining 10 or so songs are a reasonably memorable, inspired collection that would have made a pretty great album by themselves.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The National Health
    Highlights, as usual, are complemented by weaker retreads.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    My Heart Has A Wish That You Would Not Go
    For the most part, My Heart is the sound of a good band overreaching.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Offering
    Offering’s second half becomes a stoned and fuzzy blur, its overall high settling into a pleasurable yet indistinct haze.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    3121
    Oh well, a third of a terrific Prince album is better than no terrific Prince album at all.
    • 73 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Women & Work
    Women & Work has more of bar-band feel-granted, a really good bar band, but something generic is creeping into Lucero's sound.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Li(f)e
    The end result is a new soundtrack for the same old song and dance: Sage still ekes out a chuckle-inducing rhyme here and there, but it’s nothing he hasn’t done before.
    • 64 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Penny Sparkle
    But here as elsewhere, the band may have learned to sound like it was drifting off a little too well, because Penny Sparkle tends to glide away from the ear as it's playing.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Mirage Rock
    On Mirage Rock's best songs, the band feels like a sum of those parts. On its worst-like lyrical head-scratcher "Dumpster World"-it sounds like an ace band that can't salvage the mediocre material.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin
    The results rarely shed new light on either composer, but they make for a pleasant-enough marriage.
    • 68 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Elect The Dead
    Tankian hasn't yet mastered the art of editing himself for time: Inspiring as its genre-jumping is in spurts, Elect The Dead gains and loses momentum enough that even fans may not stick around long enough for the best parts.
    • 80 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Saturnalia
    The Twins' mission statement seems to be more about mood than memorable songs.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Add Violence [EP]
    Nothing on last year’s Not The Actual Events approached the grabbiness of “Less Than,” but that EP distributed its charms more evenly than Add Violence, which never tops its leadoff track.
    • 71 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes
    Social D has tapped ever deeper into its Americana roots while giving Ness plenty of grease for his gruff, rough-and-tumble confessionals. Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes, the band's seventh album, doesn't poison that well--but it comes close to exhausting it.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Into the Blue
    It’s an undeniable return to early form, albeit with the clear sensibility of a band struggling to again find the magic in the formula.
    • 82 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Anxiety's Kiss
    Beneath all of the album’s foreign effects, there’s still Coliseum banging away on drums and pushing riffs with amplifiers: If only all those studio tricks hadn’t made the album feel so disjointed.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    D-Sides
    Gorillaz' double-disc D-Sides, an extension of the hit "Demon Days," isn't as bland as that description suggests, but like 2002's "G-Sides," it lacks the luster of the studio album that inspired it.
    • 66 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Call And Response: The Remix Album
    The results are uneven, which is nearly always the case with remix discs....But the better stuff here works splendidly.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Tempest
    Tempest brings the noise, but not much else.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Lunglight
    Lunglight stirs up a worthy frolic with tattered scraps of psychedelic pop, surf-rock, frenzied folk, and a bit of Velvet Underground grit.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel
    Memoirs is Carey’s least pyrotechnic album, its flow is as important as its tunes, and while Carey is still given to acrobatic vocal displays, her lattice of subtler vocal overdubs softens and strengthens those flights.
    • 74 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fanatic
    There are a few too many of these mellower numbers to make this a true return to form, but on its high points, Fanatic shows a remarkable energy from a band that could've just coasted into soft-rock oblivion.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Everybody's Got It Easy But Me
    The Intelligence is spread a little too thin throughout.
    • 77 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Truth About Love
    If The Truth About Love finds her more content than on Funhouse (which fed off of conflicting, confusing, and not altogether flattering feelings about the mess of her personal life), she's still ambivalent about her contentment.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    X
    Running 21 tracks and 75 minutes in its deluxe edition, X sometimes threatens to be too much. But there’s enough appealing material to support that runtime.
    • 76 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Wolfroy Goes To Town
    With a blend of creeping melancholy ("There Will Be Spring") and relaxed beats ("Quail And Dumplings"), Wolfroy is emotionally stirring and softly jaunty.
    • 61 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Fasciinatiion
    While Fasciinatiion is hardly neon-coated, it's dominated by a surprising aura of playfulness: Every instrument has been fussed-over and stretched beyond recognition, resulting in an otherworldly palate of sounds that borders on comical.
    • 63 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    The Nextwave Sessions [EP]
    Bloc Party is once again on hiatus after an uneven tease of strength, a few dance-ready tracks, and a bit of dreamier material made for summer nighttime driving with the windows down.
    • 62 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    I Am Not a Dog on a Chain
    If you can get past the pall cast by that song’s sentiment, I Am Not A Dog On A Chain features some of Morrissey’s best songs in years, and a couple of his worst. It leans—in weird but not unwelcome ways—on electronics more than any record he’s ever done.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Afraid of Heights
    The more interesting moments on Afraid Of Heights come when the band begins to face their own mortality.
    • 75 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Interstellar
    While Interstellar presents Rose's music in a shiny, seductive new package, the contents remain similarly ephemeral.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    A Chorus of Storytellers
    The few songs sporting LaValle’s breathy vocals are a plus, and the percussion is heavier this time around, which is a welcome change from his previous predilection for glitch.
    • 70 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Mechanical Bull
    It was cool for them to sound effortless while channeling the dark-side-of-fame turmoil--and the Followills are still skilled crowd-pleasers--but on this record, they sound weary even when they aren’t trying.
    • 69 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Day & Age
    The Killers have returned more ambitious than ever with Day & Age, but this time around, Flowers set the buzz bar a little lower, stating that it's the band's most playful record. And he's right.
    • 67 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    Monster
    That Simmons and Stanley put this much passion and knuckle-dragging fun into Monster makes the disc's sporadic warts just part of the appeal.
    • 72 Metascore
    • 67 Critic Score
    All That Must Be
    It’s agreeably pleasant stuff, yet ultimately as modest and forgettable as the name might suggest.
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